She shall not be moved

A woman in Phnom Penh defied the odds by refusing to accede to demands that she leave her land to make way for development, setting an example for others facing forced eviction

• Published: 13/02/2012 at 05:16 PM
• Newspaper section: Spectrum

Five years ago, Boeung Kak Lake was Phnom Penh's largest. It served as home to some 20,000 Cambodians as well as the capital's backpacker ghetto, where foreign travellers would sit on guest house patios in a cannabis haze to watch the sun set over the waters and finish another Angkor Beer. And although the lake was full of sewage and debris and was hardly pristine, it served as an important catchment basin for the capital, providing equilibrium during the wet and dry seasons.

PRESSING FORWARD: Tep Vanny talks to the media during a protest in Phnom Penh. PHOTO: COURTESY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

In 2007, the government sold 133 hectares of the lake area in a 99-year lease to an obscure private development company, Shukaku Inc, for US$79 million. Now some 90% of the lake has been filled in with sand, the backpackers are gone and most of the communities that lived there have been dispersed _ either because they accepted the paltry compensation or relocation offers or because they succumbed to the threats, coercion and intimidation of local police and company workers.
Some villages are entirely gone; shells of houses remain in others, as the machines pumping sand into the waters were turned instead on houses and residents.
The residents weren't squatters on private land but families that had lived here since the Khmer Rouge regime crumbled in 1979, or bought property in past years, or invested family savings in a dream home built with their own hands.
Although the courts refused to acknowledge their claims to ownership of the land, and despite carrot-and-stick ploys to move them _ including false promises of resettlement in the US or death threats, they say _ some 800 families have refused to leave.
TEP VANNY
When company workers bulldozed houses, when police arrested and beat protesters, when hired men came to show their guns and tell people that they were about to go to heaven, one of the housewives of Village 22 became determined to lead the resistance.
Tep Vanny's land had been bought by her in-laws, and she and her husband had built the home themselves, with a small shop downstairs where they could sell necessities to the community. Brought up poor in rural Kampot province, she wasn't about to be thrown out of her dream home.
In 2008, the company offered compensation to the villagers. They could take $8,500 per family to move, or accept relocation to Damnak Trayoung, some 20km outside of Phnom Penh. While some families took the offers, often under duress, most considered them to be woefully inadequate.
The money was the same for each family regardless of the size or condition of their properties, and the land was some of Phnom Penh's most desirable _ even small plots were worth $40,000. As for relocation, it would be in an area far from central Phnom Penh, thus a great distance from their jobs, schools and communities. Trying to find work or trying to commute would be arduous without substantial savings.
In an interview with Spectrum, Tep Vanny, 31, described the path of resistance she and many other women of the community chose.
Through Sia Phearum, executive secretariat of the Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF), which helps urban residents deal with land claim issues, Tep Vanny explained how police regularly use violence or methods such as electric shocks to disperse protests and intimidation to prevent residents from staying. Half of Village 22, where she lives, has moved away. She was arrested four times last year, on Feb 28, April 21, July 7 and Nov 28, for demonstrating at city hall or trying to submit a letter of protest.
In April and July, she spent the night in prison. In July her thumb was caught and broken in the door of the police truck she was hauled away in, and not released until they arrived at the station. She still has a defamation charge against her from her November arrest.
She described some of the methods used to justify her arrest. "They showed us a photo of a man with a broken head and accused us of the damage. They sent us to the courts but didn't show the photo again. The court accused us instead of insulting officials."
Organised resistance began in September, 2008, with petitions for injunctions to filling the lake, appeals and claims that the lease agreement was illegal, but efforts failed or were deflected through extortionate court fees rising to over $40,000 to file a complaint. Tep Vanny joined the fight against eviction in early 2009 and has quickly become a central figure, not only at Boeung Kak but at other sites of forced eviction around the capital.
LEGALLY SPEAKING
In a 2003 legal ruling, residents have a claim to the land they live on if they can prove five years of uninterrupted residence.
The Land Law of 2001 and the Expropriation Law of 2010 provide some legal safeguards against forced evictions.
According to Amnesty International, Cambodia is also required by international human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to refrain from and protect people from forced evictions. And according to the HRTF, the lease of state public land to Shukaku Inc violates Cambodian land law on three counts.
But the country's weak administrative and judicial institutions often fail to protect Cambodia's most vulnerable citizens or bring to justice those who abuse and commit crimes against them.
"Authorities cooperate with the company," said Ms Vanny simply.
Despite its Far Eastern-sounding name, Shukaku Inc is owned by ruling Cambodian People's Party senator Lao Meng Khin, a close associate of the prime minister. Lao Meng Khin is also a director of Pheapimex Co, which is owned by his wife and has been alleged to be involved in illegal logging and deforestation. It is one of Cambodia's largest firms. The two companies share office space on Phnom Penh's Street 51, guarded by a detachment of armed military police.
The lease deal was signed in secret; the company had no representative to talk with local residents, and none of them have ever spoken to Lao Meng Khin.
At first, many residents assumed it was a foreign company and some even protested against their eviction orders at the South Korean embassy.
VICTORY?

SHAKY FOUNDATIONS: Tep Vanny says that whenever she leaves her house she worries that it will be bulldozed when she returns. PHOTO: COURTESY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Faced with resistance from the remaining residents, and pressured by the World Bank, NGOs and international aid donors, on Aug 11 of last year Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a sub-decree allocating 12.44 hectares of the Boeung Kak Lake land to 746 remaining local families for on-site housing.
''The 12.44 hectares is enough for 800 families,'' Tep Vanny said. ''Plans even include a community garden.''
The community and the organisations that fought alongside them considered it a partial victory, but the terms are ambiguous and many problems remain.
Eight more homes in Village 22 were bulldozed in September, and Tep Vanny said that when leaving her house she still worries if it will be there when she returns. Seven villages remain at Boeung Kak, she explained _ Villages 1, 6, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Only the residents of Village 22 _ where she lives _ haven't received their land titles yet. Ninety-four families have been excluded.
Tep Vanny and Sia Phearum of the HRTF highlighted several other concerns the remaining residents have. One is that the boundaries of the 12.44 hectares is unclear. Until the boundaries are anounced, the area can be moved, shifted and further marginalised by the company and government.
Another worry is flooding and hygiene. Because most of the lake has been filled, the surrounding area floods whenever it rains. Sewage and sanitation systems have become blocked due to the sand, forcing people to wade through unsafe and unhygienic water after rain.
Perhaps the most insidious concern is infiltration of the allotted title deeds. Senator Lao Meng Khin owns 26 land titles in Village 22, they said. He also owns land titles in Village 24 and others, but deeds are announced by number rather than name so it is impossible to know how many. How did he get the land titles?
''Through corruption,'' said Tep Vanny.
Mr Phearum added: ''The tiger tries to eat the beef.''
THE POWER OF WOMEN
Tep Vanny was one of five women fighting forced eviction in their respective communities who was profiled in a report Amnesty International published in November of last year. In the most recent high-profile case on Feb 2, when 150 women protesting against eviction at Borei Keila in Phnom Penh were violently dispersed or arrested, it was again women at the forefront. Why aren't the men as vociferous as their wives?
''Men protested in the beginning, but there were more violent clashes,'' Tep Vanny said of the struggles at Boeung Kak. ''We decided women are better at non-violent struggle. My husband is a soldier, a friend of my husband works for the police, some residents' husbands are government officials, and we were afraid the men will lose their jobs. Women are also closer to the home and suffer more from eviction.''
She described how a 71-year-old woman was beaten during the protests, suffering a head wound. Pregnant women have been beaten.
One negative aspect is the extra stress placed on the family. Tep Vanny admitted many of the couples at Boeung Kak now live separately, as women have devoted themselves to keeping their land and husbands have to search farther afield to find work.
''We're not as close as before,'' she said. ''There is more friction between couples, and we're further from the children.''
With her activism, her own children have had to spend more time under the care of her in-laws. Mental health problems such as depression have affected many residents, and one, Chea Dara, apparently committed suicide in November by throwing herself off a bridge.
Despite the problems, Tep Vanny said, the struggle has been worth it. ''We were always motivated and never gave up hope. We won 12 hectares and can keep our home.''
HOW TO LEAD THE FIGHT
Forced evictions not only affect Cambodia. There are countless land disputes in Thailand and across the region. She feels a sense of solidarity with others in her predicament.
''Our five-year struggle was not just for us but for everyone. We wanted to be a model for similar struggles.
''You need solidarity with your community and clear plans,'' she advised. ''Don't get depressed, but be strong and fight, but not with violence.''
While the support of NGOs and international media has been very helpful, she added, the motivation must come from within. ''Know the laws _ local and international _ but don't wait for outsiders to help.''

A World Bank initiative that may have made the poor prey for developers

When the Khmer Rouge government, under whose four-year rule around 1.7 million Cambodians died of starvation, disease or murder, was ousted in 1979, land titles were non-existent and registries had to be built from scratch. People lived where their family homes had been before, or wherever they could. Sometimes those with power and influence moved where they wanted, but it is in recent years, as property values have risen and financial aid from around the region been more available, that development projects have become more ambitious and evictions more violent.
In 2002, the World Bank helped set up the US$23.4 million Land Monitoring and Administration Programme, which aimed to build a system of title deeds and central registries. Government officials reviewed existing documents, conducted interviews with residents and issued over 1.2 million titles.
While it provided many Cambodians with proof of ownership, in practice the system could be manipulated. When land desirable for logging, plantations or urban development was at issue, government officials at the heart of the programme could be swayed by bribes or personal interest, and claims or appeals by poor residents simply rejected.
One German aid agency put the number of households that were refused the right to prove ownership of their property at 20%. Between 1990 and 2011, an estimated 10% of Phnom Penh's residents were evicted. Disputes over desirable land increased.
This is what happened at Boeung Kak Lake. In January, 2007, authorities refused to acknowledge any records of residents' properties or ownership claims. Then in February, it was announced that Shukaku Inc had acquired 99-year development rights _ the $79 million was well under its market value, according to economists and property developers. Within 18 months, workers had started filling the lake with sand and forcing remaining residents from their land, even while they were still vainly trying to assert their ownership.
The land title programme was abandoned in September, 2009, by the Hun Sen government, which called it ''problematic''. The World Bank, which had been lending some $50 million to $70 million a year to the country, conducted an internal investigation and concluded that the land title programme may have made it easier to evict poor residents.
In August of last year the World Bank announced a halt in all loans to Cambodia until the Boeung Kak Lake situation was resolved, a factor that may have led to the remaining residents being awarded 12.44 hectares of land in compensation.

RICH CASHING IN AS CHINA MAKES INROADS

Powerful Cambodian businessmen and politicians are profiting by selling or leasing farmland and prime land to Chinese firms.
Shukaku Inc's development partner is the Inner Mongolia Erdos Hong Jun Investment Corp, which has pledged US$3 billion (92.7 billion baht) for property, metal processing and power generation in Cambodia.
Cambodia received $8.8 billion in investments from China from 1994 to July of last year, according to the Council for the Development of Cambodia, making China Cambodia's largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign aid. Trade with China reached $1.12 billion in 2010.
Prime Minister Hun Sen has mentioned in several speeches a preference for Chinese investment because of its relative lack of conditions; Western aid is often hinged on democratic reforms or transparency.
In December, 2009, Cambodia deported 20 Muslim Uighur asylum seekers fleeing ethnic violence to China. Two days later China's vice-president Xi Jinping flew to Cambodia and signed 14 trade deals worth $850 million.
China has a free-trade pact with Asean and is investing throughout the 10 Asean nations, which generate a combined GDP of $6 trillion. China's FDI to Thailand _ second after Japan's _ totalled 25.99 billion baht in 28 projects in the first 10 months of last year, according to Thailand's Board of Investment.
A rise in Chinese investment is also apparent in Myanmar and Laos. It is a presence in the region that is worrying the US, EU and Japan, as their local influence wanes.